Monday, November 16, 2015

Sick at my stomach until Christmas

It is that time of the year when people are looking for performers to fill some time in their Christmas services. I don't think you can put too much music into services during Advent, but that's me and I have absolutely no say in what happens in any service. But I think lots of music is great. Anyhoo, G has been asked to sing for a friend's church and, because there I'm too cheap to buy the music and didn't pay attention to theory class like I should have, I can't come up with all the chords and write the music for piano for someone to play. So I am playing the ukulele once again to accompany her. She seems to be fairly calm most of the time. Her nerves come from singing to family members, but she does pretty well in front of strangers. The song is very sweet and makes me cry every time she is singing it in a serious manner. Of course we have to joke around a bit, so we sing it at super speed, in country voices, heavy metal voices and I did a Talking Heads version as well. But when I said, "Baby Jesus found himself, born in a shotgun shack...", I worried that I would cross the line of being disrespectful. Stable, shotgun shack, apples and oranges really, I suppose. Sorry, I digress. The thought of being her background music is making me quite queasy and I imagine I will stay that way untl she is done by mid December. In all of this, it is not about me and my sick stomach or her and her family performance anxiety nerves. It is about the message and the reason for the Advent season. That will guide us on our way.